Connecting Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 to Microsoft Designer Mouse via Bluetooth

Question

Using Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 on an Intel NUC NUC6i5SYK. (New thread cos previous threads on the designer mouse are for previous versions of Ubuntu/slightly different issues.) Dual booting with Win 10, where the mouse works fine.

Blueman wasn't working so I researched a little and got instructions for bluetoothctl. The results:

:~$ bluetoothctl
[NEW] Controller 00:C2:C6:CB:E5:CA matthew-desktop [default]
[NEW] Device CA:FA:3A:7B:F8:8D Designer Mouse
[NEW] Device 88:C6:26:9C:F6:D4 UE BOOM 2
[bluetooth]# agent on
Agent registered
[bluetooth]# scan on
Discovery started
[CHG] Controller 00:C2:C6:CB:E5:CA Discovering: yes
[NEW] Device 64:27:37:83:35:CD TOM-PC
[CHG] Device CA:FA:3A:7B:F8:8D Connected: yes
[Designer Mouse]# trust CA:FA:3A:7B:F8:8D
Changing CA:FA:3A:7B:F8:8D trust succeeded
[Designer Mouse]# pair CA:FA:3A:7B:F8:8D
Attempting to pair with CA:FA:3A:7B:F8:8D
[CHG] Device CA:FA:3A:7B:F8:8D Paired: yes
Pairing successful
[Designer Mouse]# connect CA:FA:3A:7B:F8:8D
Attempting to connect to CA:FA:3A:7B:F8:8D
Connection successful
[NEW] Device 5D:4D:A6:FB:F4:62 5D-4D-A6-FB-F4-62
[Designer Mouse]# 

Which looks good - but moving the mouse doesn't move the cursor, and clicks aren't registered. Otherwise using a Logitech T650, which works fine.

Any ideas what the next step might be in getting this working? Thanks!

Solution

I too have the MS designer KB and mouse and have been struggling to get them working until I found this nugget which led me to my solution:

You can use /usr/bin/btmon to observe bluetooth traffic in a terminal" $ sudo /usr/bin/btmon

The settings in my /var/lib/bluetooth/0C:8B:FD:A3:A7:81/C9:DE:3D:0B:5D:AA/info file did not correlate to the info given above so I wondered why? Both devices work fine with a Win10 installation so it cannot be hardware.

Playing with /etc/bluetooth/main.conf I have ended up with these changes to the supplied default settings:

ControllerMode = dual
FastConnectable = true
AutoEnable=true

I believe it was the "FastConnectable" set to true that did the trick.

Restart the bluetooth daemon:

$ sudo systemctl restart bluetooth

Then launch the bluetooth settings window from the panel and I was able to pair and connect first the mouse and then the keyboard.

Both of which are finally now working as I type this.

Here are the settings for the controller:

# cat /var/lib/bluetooth/0C:8B:FD:A3:A7:81/settings
[General]
Discoverable=true
DiscoverableTimeout=0

Here are the settings from the device info files:

# cat /var/lib/bluetooth/0C:8B:FD:A3:A7:81/C9:DE:3D:0B:5D:AA/info
Name=Designer Mouse
Appearance=0x03c2
AddressType=static
SupportedTechnologies=LE;
Trusted=true
Blocked=false
Services=00001800-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb;00001801-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb;0000180a-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb;0000180f-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb;00001812-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb;

[IdentityResolvingKey]
Key=FD8B335D5C060F854D176DB83B8D30C2

[LocalSignatureKey]
Key=46E81FBAC8BF9D08E2D0EB4E2B18BDD9
Counter=0
Authenticated=false

[LongTermKey]
Key=4654312509FC03FE50E4F4733939F465
Authenticated=0
EncSize=16
EDiv=48958
Rand=16834402867800600456

[DeviceID]
Source=2
Vendor=1118
Product=2053
Version=272

[ConnectionParameters]
MinInterval=6
MaxInterval=6
Latency=60
Timeout=300

# cat /var/lib/bluetooth/0C:8B:FD:A3:A7:81/F6:E0:5B:DF:78:BC/info
[General]
Name=Designer Keyboard
Appearance=0x03c1
AddressType=static
SupportedTechnologies=LE;
Trusted=true
Blocked=false
Services=00001800-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb;00001801-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb;0000180a-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb;0000180f-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb;00001812-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb;

[ConnectionParameters]
MinInterval=12
MaxInterval=12
Latency=30
Timeout=300

[IdentityResolvingKey]
Key=4F6C4BBD104ADD361420130F8EDAC946

[LocalSignatureKey]
Key=0EC3A10834025CD3297D8E45EAD7EB00
Counter=0
Authenticated=true

[LongTermKey]
Key=AF3871A1D67F898120814603BF8C77D3
Authenticated=1
EncSize=16
EDiv=16328
Rand=4879611362371170586

Thanks everyone!

Comments

[ubfan1]

Does your title bar power indicator show a mouse battery? Sometimes that indicator interferes with the mouse (bug 1098959).

[amicose]

Hi, no there's no mouse battery. The only indication I see is that another bluetooth icon appears, indicating that a device has been connected.

[amicose]

Here's the output of xinput, usb-devices and lsmod: http://pastebin.com/yfn6PwZQ

[ubfan1]

Post the file /var/lib/bluetooth/00:C2:C6:CB:E5:CA/CA:FA:3A:7B:F8:8D/info (you'll have to use sudo to see it). and the settings file in .../00:C2:C6:CB:E5:CA (Assuming you're using bluez5).The Logitech T650 is not bluetooth as far as I know.

[amicose]

It's connected and responsive! I manually changed 'false' to 'true' in /var/lib/bluetooth/00:C2:C6:CB:E5:CA/settings, switched bluetooth off then on in the panel, reconnected via terminal(bluetoothctl, connect CA:FA:3A:7B:F8:8D) and voilà. Hopefully this will mean it also autoconnects in the future!

[amicose]

The bluetooth daemon was running already, btw.

[Leo Simon]

@ubfan1 noting your comment that some mice work better than others, could you please mention one (without dongle) that is known to work well? I'll try anything!! Also, if you know of one, a keyboard (without dongle) that also works well.

[FSp]

Hi everybody. I've the MS Designer Bluetooth mouse as well, on Debian stretch. I enabled the autodiscover setting, and by using bluetoothctl connect C1:D5:... I receive this: Connection successful ... Paired: yes ... I would say the mouse is both paired and connected. In my .../info file, though, I see the DeviceID section but no LinkKey section. Am I doing something wrong?

[RTbecard]

I can verify this worked for with on Elementary Loki with the Microsoft Designer Mouse.

[Raymond Saltrelli]

FastConnectable = true fixed it for me. Thank you!